Weekend Racers Sports Car Challenge Attracts Spiffy Vehicles

Bruce Denny`s eyes glimmered like the scorching sun above as he watched the Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs and Corvettes race by at the Moroso Motorsports Park in Palm Beach Gardens.

``The cars are incredible,`` Denny, 24, of Jupiter, said Saturday morning as car-enthusiasts one-by-one sprinted their autos around the 1.1-mile track.

``I haven`t done this yet, but I`d like to. You need a souped-up engine, make the tires nice and gripping and just drive like an idiot -- like that guy,`` he said, pointing to a silver Mercedes grumbling off onto the B-shaped track.

Most drivers in this track event weren`t professional.

Most cars weren`t strictly for racing.

Instead, the race lured people who spend their weekends traveling from as far away as Miami to race the cars that they`ll drive to work on Monday.

The race is part of the Third Annual International Sports Car Challenge, a weekend contest that ends today with a two-hour beauty contest for cars that starts at 9:30 a.m. at the PGA Sheraton Resort in Palm Beach Gardens.

Sherry Brantley, 27, drives a BMW to her doctor`s clinic job every weekday -- and then uses it as a sports car on weekends.

On Saturday, she lounged in a chair as she let her husband, Kin, pull jet- black No. 55 up to the starting line. Kin was named the South Florida district champion for G-stock cars by the Sports Car Club of America, she said. Today, she was just watching.

``We have trophies almost in the bathroom,`` Brantley said, remarking on how autocrossing has seeped insidiously into their lives.

``I met my husband at an event,`` said a friend, Ann Alber of Delray Beach, who started driving in 1962 and now sports a BMW. ``It`s like riding a roller coaster: Once you`re done, you`re scared but you want to do it again.``

Autocrossing is a test of accuracy and speed, requiring drivers to one-by-one maneuver their cars around 20 or so pylons scattered throughout a one-mile track. Drivers battle time, and add two seconds for each pylon they knock down.

Anyone can drive any car in autocross, Alber said, including subcompacts. On Saturday, many of the thundering 85 participants were BMWs, Porsches and Corvettes. And then there were the stranger ones -- like Jim Gran`s 1959 Austin Healey, known as the ``bug-eye sprite.``

``Anything you do here on the course is directly related to being a safer driver on the road,`` said Gran, 30, of Miami. ``Your ability to drive is sharpened here. You stop quicker, look further down the road, have quicker reactions.``